Passageways is a community outreach project that ?activates the urban alley through architecture? Four alleyways in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee have been reclaimed and transformed into dynamic public spaces thanks to a community outreach project by AIA Tennessee and River City Company, the city?s economic development nonprofit .
Launched in August 2016, Passageways aims to highlight the potential of forgotten and unused spaces ?by activating the urban alley through architecture:?
The purpose of Passageways is to re-imagine Chattanooga?s alleyways; to breathe life into these auxiliary spaces, to create a place, a destination in itself, and to demonstrate the value, the importance, and the potential of these between spaces and the significance they have to our built urban fabric.
The initiative put out an open call to architects, designers, engineers, and artists from around the world to create a public installation and event space within the narrow corridor between two buildings.
Five proposals were selected from 70 submissions. Two teams from Chattanooga, two from New York City, and one from Australia installed their winning projects in one week, transforming four alleyways found on the 700 blocks of Broad, Market, and Cherry Streets into interactive passageways that reclaim their historical purpose as a path for pedestrians and, as a byproduct, a hub of activity. But it?s the informal use of the alleyways that add the most color to the city.
Here?s a brief lo...